Poetry Month and Casey at the Bat

Since April is National Poetry Month and Opening Day was Monday, it seemed like a good time to read Ernest L. Thayer's poem, "Casey at the Bat."  This poem was written in 1888, and the language is a bit antiquated, requiring students to use context clues to decipher some of the vocabulary.

I read the poem to 5th & 6th graders, leaving out the last stanza, which reads:

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.


I then asked the students to write the final stanza, predicting the outcome of the game.  I asked them to write the stanza in the same rhyming pattern as the rest of the poem (AABB), and to share what they wrote with the class. I then read them the final stanza:

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Casey has struck out.

Many were surprised to learn that the mighty Casey did not get a hit to win the game! Here are a few stanzas written by the students:

Then the ball flies through the air.

The crowd is screaming with no care.

The ball goes high above the wall.

Hooray! Hooray! Casey's team wins it all!

_____

Casey hits a walkoff home run.

The game is over, the championship is won.

In excitement the crowd pours onto the field,

The curse of the city is now healed.

_____

But the crowd despaired

Their hearts are not repaired.

Casey did not hit the ball,

So the spirit of the people falls.

_____

The crowd was roaring, the ball was soaring, just from one quick swing.

No one really doubted the team with Casey under their wing.

He ran one, then two, then three, then four.

The bases had never been run better before.

_____

The ball hurtled into the sky.

Faster than the blink of an eye!

He ran the home run

Faster than the rays of a scorching sun!

_____

He hits the ball high in the air.

Everyone is out of their chair.

Everyone thinks it's going short,

But he hits it into the nearest basketball court.